Two different models of cooperation between a university in Norway and two universities in Africa - an autoethnographic report

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Wednesday V)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Higher education and internationalization: Recruitment and challenges in Asia, Africa, and North America

Proposal

Two different models of cooperation between a university in Norway and two universities in Africa - an autoethnographic report.

By Birgit Brock-Utne

My paper deals with two different projects of cooperation between the University of Oslo and two universities in Africa. The report is an autoethnographic report since I have been strongly involved in both of the projects on the Norwegian side. I describe my own involvement in the projects, the different models of organization, their strengths and weaknesses as I have experienced them.

The first project described is the NUFU funded project LOITASA (Language of Instruction in Tanzania and South Africa). . In 1991 the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and the Norwegian Council of Universities (NCU) signed a cooperation agreement, which led to the initiation of the Norwegian Council of Universities’ Programme for Development Research and Education ( NUFU ). The programme was administered by a committee under the NCU, dedicated to research and development in developing countries. The Centre for international cooperation between universities, SIU was established in autumn 1991 and the NUFU programme got its location at the new Centre. The Centre has its headquarter at the University of Bergen. The Centre ran several programmes, among those the NUFU programme. Academics at Norwegian universities could, in cooperation with academics at universities in developing countries, apply for funding for a five year project . The LOITASA project began in January 2002.The universities involved were the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), the University of Western Cape (UWC) and the University of Oslo (UiO). The first phase continued through 2006. At the end of that phase we were granted a second round of funding (2007 – 2011). The last Ph.D. student received her doctorate in 2016. Though the money for the NUFU programme came from the development aid budget, the administration of the programme was done by academics through SIU. In 1979 the Norwegian universities organized North-South committees. These committees prioritized the applications for funding which came in and also peer reviewed the yearly reports from the projects and gave professional advice. The committees had one representative from each faculty, appointed for a two year period.

The second project is the NORHED funded project TRANSLED (Transformation, Language, Education and Development). NORHED is an abbreviation of the Norwegian Programme for Capacity Development in Higher Education and research for Development. The programme was launched by Norad in 2012. The TRANSLED project began in 2014, and is supposed to end at the end of this year. The cooperation is between the State University of Zanzibar (SUZA), UiO and UDSM. While LOITASA was built on a joint planning and reporting system between the three cooperating universities, NORHED has placed the administration of the project at one of the universities in the South, SUZA. While under LOITASA students came to Norway to study now students stay in their own countries where new master and Ph.d. programmes are being built up. There seems to be both more idealistic and economic reasons behind the establishment of NORHED. The more idealistic move was to have the universities in the South be in the driver’s seat. In my paper I show that actually NORAD (the Norwegian Aid for Development) is now in the driver’s seat much more than it was before, that hardly any research has taken place and no joint research at all.

Author

• Birgit Brock-Utne, University of Oslo